Red Wings VP Steve Yzerman sat down for a conversation with NHL.com's Dan Rosen, discussing the intensity level he expects to witness from the 46 players in attendance and the camp's implicit goal:

August 21, NHL.com: NHL.com: If you can come out of this camp Thursday night after the Red-White scrimmage saying one thing, what would you like it to be?

Yzerman: "Most important, I want the players to leave that camp Thursday night thinking, 'I totally understand how the coaches want the team to play, I understand the type of game they're going to play and what is expected of me to make the team.' I guess it's to answer every question that they have leading up to the Olympics so when they get to Vancouver in February all their questions have been answered and they can just focus on playing the first game of that tournament."

NHL.com: Many people are wondering what the point is behind playing the Red-White scrimmage game Thursday because the fear of injury may outweigh the gain the players, coaches and executives get out of the game. Why is the game going to be played and at any point were there thoughts to cancel it, especially because of the insurance issues?

Yzerman: "I could have called this a practice. It didn't need to be called a Red-White scrimmage. People are making way too much of it. Teams in the NHL and every league scrimmage in practice. It's no different than that. We have 45 guys skating (Ryan Getzlaf is out due to offseason surgery) and we're going to practice for three days and we wanted in more of a game-like situation to get out there and do the things they have been working on for three days. We could have just run another practice to go through our forechecking and backchecking systems and work on the power play and penalty kill, but we thought it would be better to incorporate it more into a game. The intensity level expected and what we're going to be doing is no different than what the players do every single day in practice."

NHL.com: The assumption is the style Canada will play in these games will closely resemble the style the Red Wings play. Is it wrong to assume that, or is it pretty accurate?

Yzerman: "Well, Mike Babcock coaches the Red Wings and he's going to coach this team so the things he's been successful with his teams, and I mean all the teams he's coached -- he's brought a lot of his ideas from one job to the next and the things he's been successful with he's stuck with -- some will be incorporated into the Olympic team. Not all, but some. You play a certain way based on the personnel you have and we're going to have a strong offensive team and good puck-moving defenseman. We're not molding this after the Detroit Red Wings, but he's going to apply some of the things that made the Detroit Red Wings successful."

The NHL's website also posted a 4:32 clip of Yzerman talking to Rosen: